Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
- Needs care: Frost risk in January
- Not known: No soil score
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 1,410 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 440 mm it can use in a normal year, and 390 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 24–37 °C on average, and survives 15–41 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 39 °C / 27 °C
- Jul 34 °C / 26 °C
- Aug 33 °C / 25 °C
- Sep 33 °C / 24 °C
- Oct 31 °C / 18 °C
- Nov 26 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 21 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 18 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 22 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 28 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 34 °C / 19 °C
- May 39 °C / 24 °C
- Jun 39 °C / 27 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Nights in January can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.
Soil
No soil score here: the soil tests don't say enough about nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium.
Likes pH 5.0–8.0.
Money
Yield: about 317 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.
Priced at the cane price Punjab fixed for its mills for 2025-26: ₹416 a quintal.
- ₹300 2021
- ₹300 2022
- ₹300 2023
- ₹330 2024
- ₹350 2025
Prices are usually best in May.
Typical costs are about ₹61,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.